Japan’s Location-based Cell Phone Item Collection Game
From Wired:
It sends players out and about in Tokyo searching for virtual treasure by using the GPS technology built into their phones.
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Items like flowers, fruits or creatures are “hidden” around Tokyo, and are visible on a city map on players’ mobile phones. Players form teams, comb the city and try to find each item in various “collections.” They also try to find players from other teams working on different collections with whom to trade.
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“What’s astonishing about Mogi is that it provides a system for people to coordinate and team up and inhabit cities in ways they never have before,” Hall suggests. “It’s dispatching. It’s recreational dispatching, like a cab company, or police or the fire department. It’s fabulously fascinating, this idea that, hey, I’m sitting on my computer at home looking at the Mogi map, and that thing our group wants is over on the west side of town. You’re the closest, so (you go get it) because it’s important for the group.”
From thefeature:
For now, Mogi runs on Japanese carrier KDDI’s phones with built-in GPS capacity.
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Mogi is a collecting game – “item hunt”. The game provides a data-layer over the city of Tokyo. As you move through the city, if you check a map on your mobile phone screen, you’ll see nearby items you can pick up and nearby players you can meet or trade with.
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“some items only appear at certain places, at certain times.” For example, Castelli cites the creatures in the game: “We used the map to give creatures some interesting behavior. Some creatures only hunt at night. Some hang around close to parks.” If a player wants to find that creature, they’ll have to travel near a park[IN THE REAL WORLD] in the evening hours.
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Desktop internet players have access to a larger map. Newt Games’s idea is to have the desktop players guiding the mobile internet players, a goal of collaborative play, team work.
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Players can run around the landscape collecting things, or they can remain in one place and trade with other players.
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Kigen [THE EVENTUAL PRODUCT THAT MOGI IS THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF] resembles Mogi, with additional layers of complexity added: combat, technological evolution, conquering neighborhoods.
Damaged Goods
Reviews and summaries of Russell’s Doctor Who novel. drwhoguide, amazon, pagefillers, Howe’s Who.

‘Wherever this cocaine has travelled, it hasn’t gone alone. Death has been its attendant. Death in a remarkably violent and inelegant form.’
The Doctor, Chris and Roz arrive at the Quadrant, a troubled council block in Thatcher’s Britain. There’s a new drug on the streets, a drug that’s killing to a plan. Somehow, the very ordinary people of the Quadrant are involved. And so, amidst the growing chaos, a bizarre trio moves into number 43.
The year is 1987: a dead drug dealer has risen from the grave, and an ancient weapon is concealed beneath human tragedy. But the Doctor soon discovers that the things people do for their children can be every bit as deadly as any alien menace — as he uncovers the link between a special child, an obsessive woman, and a desperate bargain made one dark Christmas Eve.
BBC Interview with the new Dr Who

The BBC has an interview with Christopher Eccleston, the new Dr Who. The show will start airing again next year. Sounds like they’ll be taking a lot of risks…. In the interview, he jokes that the Dr and his companion will be more than friends. In an article, Russell T Davies, the writer, says he wants the show to be a “real, full-blooded drama”. Am I the only person who thinks Ozzy Osbourne would make an excellent Dr Who?
I miss Dr Who. Give me Daleks and Cybermen over The Borg(Star Trek) and Stormtroopers(Star Wars) any day. [Edit: It’s harder to dismiss, of course, Cylons and Decepticons.]
Article, Interview, Dr Who Home, New Series News, Info about Russell T Davies.
Palm-Related: Enfora Wifi Portfolio Mod
This guy modified an Enfora Wifi Portfolio, turning it into a (much smaller) sled!